Kamisama Hajimemashita episode 13 [Final]: a dance from the gods

Following Nanami’s dramatci exit, Tomoe goes out looking for her, worried that she might never come back. Meanwhile, Nanami continues to be depressed, until she realizes that many people are looking forward to the festival she holds, and then she remembers just how much the shrine is her home and decides to come back of her own will.

When she comes back, the beast that used to be sealed is now released, and its miasma is so thick that it absorbs Otohiko’s small prank and becomes a real menace. Nanami comes in and attempts to do her kagura dance, however trips and Tomoe has to come and save her, giving her courage again. Meanwhile, Mikage, who is looking at the scene, decides to help Nanami out and gives her power to repel the beast easily.

Because the outfit changes everything.

In the end, the shrine is back to normal and the festival is a success. At night, while Tomoe and Nanami are alone, Tomoe asks her if he can “form a contract with her” again, and kisses her as the final episode of this series ends.

Impression

WOOHOOO! THEY DIDN’T FAIL!!!!

By that, I mean the ending wasn’t ruined.

There are a few things which made me unhappy, however overall I wasn’t disappointed as much as I thought I would be. Everything that I thought should logically be there was, and the episode felt like an ending, rather than manga advertisement.

I was glad to see Tomoe’s feelings come to fruition, and got ultimate fangirl when the kiss happened. It was perfect, romantic, the timing was great and it made it so that this romance could in fact be a romance and not a wanna-be-romantic-but-can’t-get-far-enough kind of thing. After Nanami’s disappearance and her wonderful kagura dance, it’s only obvious that his feelings would show up completely and that he’d finally admit how much he likes her.

The festival was also a great idea for the end. Since the shrine will probably have more people visiting now, it really feels like everything will go well and like the story doesn’t need to be followed anymore. I was a bit weirded out to see Himemiko show up and be super friendly all of a sudden, but the lack of episodes made it so that she couldn’t show up as much as I would have wanted her to. If it was just me, I would have cut out an episode or 2 involving Mizuki to replace them with Himemiko, as she wasn’t focused on at all in the anime.

I also didn’t like the lack of development for Otohiko, who just showed up because “Nanami wasn’t a real God”. His motive was vague and incomplete, and for him to suddenyl de friendly in the end just because he saw her feels a bit weird. Had Nanami at least known who he was would have been great.

Moving on to the iffy points, I’d say what bothered me the most was Nanami’s perfect kagura dance. Last I knew, she hadn’t learned more than the fifth movement and she tripped all over the place, and all of a sudden she can master it enough to repel a beast that even Mikage couldn’t? I understand that she had the power of two Gods inside her when Mikage came to help, but it still doesn’t explain her awesome dancing. It’s legit impossible that she could know it this well when she sucked this bad.

At least, we were shown how much she has the merits of being a land God. For her to come back to the shrine to try and save it despite everything else showed her strength, and actually reminded us that she’s not that useless. I wish we could have the chance to see her actually become powerful, since it would definitely be a sight to see. Unfortunately, this is a 12 episode romance and doesn’t seem like it wants to have any shounen-related things in there, so we’ll have to forget about it having absolutely no plot holes…

Should this show get a second season? I believe it should. I was unsure what to expect with last episode and was expecting a total flop in this one, which was preventing me from looking forward to anything more than this season. After seeing this one, however, all it needs for the show to be absolutely great is a second season in order to fill all the incomplete plot holes. More Otohiko, more Himemiko, explain why Mikage left and develop Tomoe’s and Nanami’s relationship, and you’ve got yourself a hell of a good show. So many things are left open that it would be easy to make an extra season without having it full of bullshit.